


The Gang Goes To The Beach

by coolangelsthesis



Category: Watch Dogs (Video Games)
Genre: Day At The Beach, Established Relationship, Idiots in Love, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Pranks and Practical Jokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:02:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25388731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolangelsthesis/pseuds/coolangelsthesis
Summary: San Francisco has been experiencing some of the hottest weather the city has seen in years. Making the best out of a situation, Dedsec decides to enjoy it with a beach party.
Relationships: Marcus Holloway/Wrench
Comments: 18
Kudos: 107





	The Gang Goes To The Beach

**Author's Note:**

> haha man 2020 has been a doozy hasn't it. i was planning on getting back on track with writing and then... all of everything happened. but i'm back! with a fic! with legion just around the corner, i am soooo hyped.
> 
> this is a writing prompt from tumblr that exploded into a full fic. if, by chance, you have any fic ideas you've been wanting to read about the gang, i'd love to hear them. catch me either on [twitter](https://twitter.com/sleepdrifting) or [tumblr](https://vurtkonnegut.tumblr.com/)!  
> also big THANK YOU to [dramaticalhearts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kusokawaii/pseuds/DramaticalHearts) for beta-ing! <3
> 
> hope you enjoy! :)

Wrench stretches out on the beach towel, much like a cat preparing for a nap in a nice sunlit spot. Except he’s much larger than a cat, wears loads of spikes on the regular, and is currently laying under a huge umbrella that is preventing even a sliver of light from reaching him.

“Pfft, of course I’m not swimming,” his mask sends two question marks up towards Marcus. “I would die, for starters, and two, my plan’s to drink, drink some more, and then wait until I can light shit on fire.”

“That won’t be for hours, dude. It ain’t even noon,” Marcus counters, squinting up at the sun and back down at Wrench.

Eyes wandering a little, they trail down to his swim shorts Wrench borrowed off of him. Should have known he would pick the ones with the cheesy yellow-and-red flames licking up from the bottom. (Like fashion disaster destiny drew the two together, Wrench happened to own a matching button-up that completed the ensemble.) Proudly wearing the Guy Fieri look, Wrench had his shirt completely undone and splayed open. The combo of his chicken-scratch tattoos and the disaster outfit certainly was… something.

Marcus liked to think he’d gone with something a bit more fashionable by choosing one of his favorites: an 80’s style print with neon colors and geometric shapes.

Today marked the fifth day of a record-breaking heat wave in the Bay area. There’s usually only a handful of unbearably hot days in the worst of a San Francisco summer, but with numbers nearing triple-digits the weather was just playing cruel games.

Always the opportunist, though, Marcus took the weather as an excuse to rope together everyone at HQ for an impromptu beach party. Sitara had chosen the spot, a small cove outside of Marin that hardly anyone knew about, even the locals.

And because she’s Sitara, it’s perfect. Clear water, white sand, beautiful view of the horizon and the skyline on the other side of the bay. And besides one or two other small groups of people, it’s all theirs.

Trying to annoy his boyfriend, Marcus leans against the umbrella, tilting it slightly to move the shadow off of Wrench. He returns back to the conversation. “You don’t have to go out all the way. Just a little? Up to your knees?” 

Thoroughly annoyed, Wrench glares at him with two slashes on his mask showing his disdain. He sits up, grabbing the umbrella to steer the shade back over him.

“Thanks for the offer, but I have developed a sudden and life-threatening fear of large bodies of water. And sunburns. And sharks… especially sharks.”

Marcus rolls his eyes.

“No offense, but I think if a shark took a bite out of you, they’d spit it back out. Too much ink.”

Sitara cuts in. “Uh oh. Trouble in paradise?”

She’s returning to the two with arms full of snacks and alcohol, wearing one of her own pieces— a black and purple set with her Dedsec art patterned over it. Marcus made a mental note to ask her to make him some Dedsec swimwear.

Josh wasn’t too far behind, his regular green hoodie clashing with the tropical swim trunks he’s wearing. His arms are engulfed by two inflatable tubes, nearly swallowing him whole.

“No, but Marcus wants me to get eaten by sharks and develop skin cancer and drown.” His mask flashes semicolon tears. “How cruel.”

“That’s all bullshit,” Marcus defends himself to Sitara. “He doesn’t want to go in the water, or get any sun, or… you know… have fun.”

“You should know better than anyone that Wrench’s definition of fun is large explosions and lots of crunching metal,” Sitara says, dumping the heavy bags in her hands onto a large blanket set out on the sand. She reaches into one and grabs a beer, cracking it open with a satisfying hiss. “Now that I think about it, I actually don’t think I’ve ever seen you swim. Guess you can’t with the mask, huh?”

“Nope.” Wrench rolls over to grab beer for himself and for Marcus. “And that way it shall remain forevermore.”

“To be fair, if Wrench submerged his mask in water, it could potentially be dangerous,” Josh adds, joining Wrench under the umbrella. “Electrocution, for one, but it could also permanently fry the hardware in his mask. That’d be bad. But—”

Wrench pats Josh on the shoulder, a pleased ‘^^’ passing over his mask. “See? Josh gets it! Trust me, M. I am totally fine with staying on land.”

“You could go out a couple feet into the water, though,” Josh continues, visibly uncomfortable from being touched— and cut off. “Or there are the inflatable tubes Sitara grabbed from HQ.”

He points to the two he’d brought from Sitara’s car: there was a crocodile-shaped one that had been hanging in one of the far corners of DedSec HQ since last summer, and a donut-shaped one Wrench had stolen from some pool party god-knows-how-long ago.

Marcus remembered that night in that he could not remember it at all. The only thing that stuck out was trying to lug the oversized pastry back to Wrench’s garage in the middle of the night in the pouring rain and waking up in the morning hungover and sore with a Monet of bruises over his whole body. Clearly a great night.

But now that Wrench is presented with the opportunity to get some practical use out of the thing, it seems like he’s very much Not A Fan of the idea. Or maybe he is. Marcus can’t really tell because his mask is blank, which usually happens when he’s caught in the middle of some intense internal debate.

Instead of coming to any decision, though, Wrench just folds his arms behind his head and yawns. “Hmm… I’m good here. Maybe later. _Maybe_.”

“Well, it’s your loss,” says Sitara, finishing off half of her beer in one go. She begins to head towards the water. “Don’t know about you two boys, but it’s too hot to just be laying around.”

Josh nods, unzipping his hoodie and setting it down meticulously. After a couple steps, he stops, turns around to grab the plastic crocodile, then continues after Sitara.

Marcus lingers behind instead. He wants to give Wrench one last chance to change his mind. “Sure you’re good, Wrench?”

“One-hundred percent, my dear,” is the reply, with Wrench smiling up at him. “I get to watch you get all wet and shiny and… glisten-y? It’s like I’m living in my own fan-casted remake of Baywatch. What’s better than that?”

Marcus blinks, needing a moment to take in what Wrench just said. When it registers, he has to laugh to cancel out his embarrassment.

“If you’d have told me about your kinks earlier, I could have sorted them out for you, man,” he smirks. “I’d have worn my red swim trunks and everything.”

The mask displays two excited exclamation points, then winks. “If I told you everything that gets me going, I wouldn’t have that cool, mysterious edge, you know? … But please do wear the red ones next time. Please.”

“Duly noted… I’ma go work on my Hasselhoff impression then. Enjoy yourself.”

Chuckling, Marcus uses his foot to kick sand towards his boyfriend. Wrench flips him off in return.

Marcus gets out to where the sand is cold and damp and lingers in the tide as it rolls against his ankles. Something’s up with Wrench. He’s not going to go to the others about it; he doesn’t want to spoil their fun and it’s not that big of a deal anyway. He’s just guessing there’s something more to Wrench’s stubborn indignance than he’s letting on.

Maybe he’ll ask about it later once they’re alone, but for now, he decides to not dwell on it. He trusts Wrench; he’ll open up when he’s comfortable. Instead, he’s going to go have a goddamn good time— and make sure Wrench does too.

Sitara catches him by surprise, swinging an arm around his neck and pulling him deeper into the water. “Took you long enough, slowpoke!”

“Haha, hey, I—”

“Nope, don’t wanna hear it. You and I are racing to see who can go out the furthest.”

Marcus grins. “Oh, you’re _on_.”

He breaks out of her grasp by pushing her underwater, giving himself a head start.

*

It didn’t take long for Wrench to get bored. Sure, laying around, drinking beer, and watching his friends as they enjoyed the water was great (as he was _totally_ not just casting googly eyes at Marcus the whole time, definitely not), but Wrench isn’t the best when it comes to being left alone without any direct stimuli to keep himself preoccupied. His mind wanders, and he gets bored, then annoyed.

Sighing, he closes his eyes. Even in the shade, it was too hot to think, and he was beginning to regret some of his life choices. Like never getting around to making a second mask with something that wasn’t leather, only one the most heat absorbent fabrics known to mankind. Yes, sacrifices have to be made in the name of fashion, but this is unbearable.

*

Wrench doesn’t know how long he’s out, but he comes back to the real world with a gasp. Something’s pinning his legs down and triggering his flight-or-fight response. Had he been pinned by a car somehow? Had the beach turned to quicksand?

“Whathefu—" he slurs, feeling around to get a grip of his surroundings as he comes back into consciousness. His instincts naturally move towards his lower half, trying to figure out what the fuck is weighing down on him.

Sand. There’s nothing but sand. His legs are buried in sand. Entombed up to his waist in the shape of… a mermaid tail?

“Oh my god, I hate you all.” Wrench knocks his head back against the sand. Josh and Sitara to the side of him, howling fits of laughter.

Then he catches Marcus in the act, knelt next to him, packing more sand onto him. “No you don’t.”

Wrench narrows his eyes behind the mask. “No I don’t, but I’m hating you all right now. And also judging you because I can think of ten better pranks than ‘ha ha, you’re covered in sand now.'”

After giving the tail another once-over, it was honestly impressive how deep they were able to bury him, without him feeling any of it.

Testing its structural support, he extended one of his legs. The sand around it bent and cracked. He could easily free himself right now, but decides against it. That’s too dickish, even for him. His friends (and doting boyfriend) had worked hard on it. He had scales and everything! The least he could do is let them have their fun. For now. He would need a couple days to brainstorm his vengeance plan, anyway. Something with waterguns, yeah… maybe turrets? Watergun turrets. Fuck yeah.

Bookmarking the thought, he returns back to his displeasure of his current situation with a whine.

“Man, I’m going to be digging sand out of everywhere for weeks…”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Think you’ll need some help?” The flirty lilt to Marcus’ words is unmistakable.

Wrench smirks, coming back twice as strong. “Even in all the _deep_ and _dark_ crevices?”

“Eugh, _gross_ , Wrench!” Sitara tosses an empty beer can at Wrench’s head. “I really didn’t need that mental image. Thanks.”

“Hey, Marcus started it! Not fair.”

She grabs the can and tosses it at Marcus too. “Both of you. Tuck it in your swim trunks. Behave yourselves and stop traumatizing Josh.”

Marcus rubs where the can ricocheted off his head, laughing. “Please don’t wash my mouth out with soap, mom. And hey— sorry, Josh.”

Josh looks incredibly confused. “It’s fine? You two are dating.”

“Well, my junk’s covered in tons of sand at the moment, so I’m, like, wearing a huge chastity belt.” Wrench glances at the water, now noticing how far the sun has gone down from the last time he remembers seeing it. “Jesus. How long was I out?”

“Around three hours,” Josh replies. “Sitara started burying you like an hour ago. We’ve been waiting to see how long it would take for you to wake up.”

“Marcus wasn’t kidding, you are a _heavy_ sleeper,” Sitara pulls out her phone. “I even added some extra embellishments to kill time.”

Pulling up a photo, she presents her phone to Wrench. It’s him and his new appendage from a top-down angle, visibly passed out via the blank screen on his mask. Sitara edited the photo a little bit, adding life and color to the scales to make it look more realistic. She knew him well, choosing red and black as the colors for his new aquatic alter-ego.

Okay… yeah… he looks cool.

“It was Marcus’ idea to edit it, but I think it turned out awesome. I’m going to try to find a way to incorporate this into a project somehow. I’ll edit your tats and mask and everything, obviously, but—”

The heat’s getting to Wrench again. He sighs. “Okay… sorry, Sitara, sure do what you want, but can someone please help me up? This sand is heavy as hell, my legs are starting to cramp up, and I have to pee _so bad_.”

*

The rest of the day went by in the typical beach day montage in a film or obligatory beach episode of an anime: rounds of intoxicated volleyball, sunbathing and subsequent discovery of a lack of sunscreen, and wreaking havoc on one another’s good time via ridiculous hijinks. At one point, Marcus rode off with a motorboat he hijacked off someone, as he does. 

Once the sun had begun to set, Wrench hastened to get a bonfire going. Savoring in its warmth, the group enjoys the last of the day idly chatting and taking in the mingling of oranges and pinks and purples spread across the sky. They shimmed over the clear water, making it glow. Marcus has been taking lots of photos all day, but he takes several more, not wanting to forget a single moment. 

Sometime after night settled and had a chance to cool everything down, Marcus and Wrench wander off to find somewhere more isolated. No sex on the beach, unfortunately, but to do something a little more intimate than that.

It took plenty of words of encouragement, the aftereffect of a lot of booze, and the use of Marcus’ sunglasses to hide the majority of his birthmark, but eventually Wrench felt confident enough to take off his mask and join Marcus in the water.

The first thing that catches him by surprise is the feeling of the mist against his real face. It’s strange. He can’t remember the last time he’s felt that, if at all.

Though he feels _exposed_ and embarrassed, he’s too buzzed to focus on the feeling. Waves rock the inflatable donut he’s sitting in and make him feel a little seasick. Thankfully, Marcus is holding onto the outside of the ring, keeping it stable against the stronger waves and preventing him from going out too far.

It’s sweet. Marcus is an incredibly sweet, too perfect boyfriend like that. It makes Wrench feel comfortable enough to open up a little.

“This is nice,” he admits after a dip in their previous conversation about the improbability of shark attacks. “I would say I like swimming with you, but you’re the only one swimming. I just have my ass in a donut.”

Marcus chuckles. “Hey, that’s close enough to swimming. I think it counts.” 

“Glad I’ve got your approval. You know, I’ve never actually learned to swim.”

“Really?” Marcus glances up at him, eyebrow raised. “You never told me you were scared of water. I thought you only avoided it because of your mask.”

“I mean, yeah, that’s a big part of it. And I’m not fucking scared of water, that’s ridiculous. I’m fine when I’m on boats and shit, but... I dunno.” 

“... What is it?” Marcus’ voice is soft and un-impeding, pushing just enough to see if Wrench will let him in. 

Wrench sighs, irritated with himself. He doesn’t deserve someone as compassionate as Marcus. “This sounds stupid, but… I’ve always been more interested in tech than anything, and tech gets destroyed in water, so I… I don’t know where I’m going with this.” He stops. “Huh. Maybe I am scared of it.” Shaking his head, he sighs again. ”Damn, I’m pathetic.”

“No you’re not. Everyone’s allowed to have fears, man, no matter how ridiculous they may be,” Marcus reassures him, reaching over to rub slow, comforting circles into Wrench’s arm. “You know what I’m afraid of? Horses. No real reason. No bad experiences with them. But they fill me with dread whenever I see one.”

“Yeah, but that makes sense. Horses are fucking terrifying. Like ugh, their _teeth_? But the water’s just… there. And I’m not really bothered by it until I think about being in it, you know.”

“For being scared, you seem to be incredibly chill right now.”

 _It's because you’re here_ isn’t a very good answer, so Wrench shrugs instead. Marcus continues.

“Maybe you just haven’t gotten used to it because you never learned to swim. If you want, I could teach you?”

Wrench’s immediate reaction is to laugh. “Hah, _where_ ? Public pools are festering petri dishes, and not to mention—” he gestures to his face, “— _this_ whole thing is like some unicorn-sighting-in-the-woods grade shit, so you should consider yourself lucky.”

“Oh, I already do. Hm…” Marcus pursed his lips in thought. “You know what we haven’t done in a while?”

“What?”

“Broke into some rich dude’s mansion when he’s away at one of his other three mansions, disabled his security cams, and messed with his shit. I teach you in the privacy of a bougie-ass temperature-controlled pool with a fucking waterfall and everything. You in?”

Wrench pushes the sunglasses down so he can properly look at him. Just by how Marcus is grinning at him, he can tell how eager he is about this prospect. Even if Wrench wasn’t automatically down for any plan that meant breaking into rich asshole’s houses, he couldn't just crush Marcus’ hopes like that. The best way to get over your fears is facing them head-on, right?

So he makes a big act like he’s mulling over it for a while, hemming and hawing as Marcus stares him down with anticipation. After moments of ‘deliberation‘, he meets Marcus’ gaze.

“Hmm… sure. I’m down. But on one condition: you can only teach me if we’re skinny dipping.”

Marcus looked at him like he’d grown another head out of the side of his neck. “Yeah, no. You can work your way up to that, though. Think of it as an incentive to keep learning.”

“Aww, you can’t get me excited for something then take it away from me like that! But fine, I’ll take what I can get.”

Marcus gives him that big, warm, adorating smile that makes Wrench feel like he’s worth the world. He starts to think that he _does_ deserve this. “Man, this is going to be fucking great. I’m so excited to teach you. You’re so smart and great at figuring shit out, so I know you’ll do great.”

Wrench is thankful it’s dark out, because his face flushes bright red. Then, as is his modus operandi when he’s shown affection and doesn't know how to deal with it, he turns into an ass. Breaking into an impish smirk, he leans in closer to Marcus.

“Oh, am I discovering one of your kinks right now? Young, bodacious swim instructor inciting a spark of passion in the heart of his student, a 40-something housewife who hasn’t been satisfied in over fifteen years?”

“Pffft, hell no! What the fuck, dude? That’s like my least favorite genre of porn.”

“Oh, it needs to be hentai, right? _Marcus-sensei_ , pleeeeease teach me all that you know~”

Before Marcus gets a chance to make a comeback, Wrench cups Marcus’ face between his hands.

Feeling tender and in love, he kisses him.

**Author's Note:**

> alternate title was 'teaching bitches how to swim' but that's a waste of hacker - dg for a title haha
> 
> thank you so much for reading! i had a blast writing this... i'll never tire of writing SF dedsec because i adore their relationships with one another (and i love wrencus with All my Heart). they make me happy ok
> 
> kudos/comments are always appreciated, and like i mentioned earlier, hit me up on social media and let's get excited for new watch dogs together!


End file.
